Secret Sauce
Page 14
He punched a few more keys on his computer to find out Angie’s address. Seeing that it was only a few blocks away, he printed his screen and rushed out to give an update to the police. When he started to head out the door, he almost bumped into Angie in the hallway.
“Angie?” he gasped but then recovered quickly. “I didn’t know you were still around.” He noticed that her clothes were stained and his eyes took in every detail. Her eyes were red and he could see small veins in her forehead. Her hands were shaking like she was coming down off drugs.
“Angie, where’s Marina?”
Angie’s eyes zeroed in on his. “Why? Why couldn’t you just stay away from her? Why couldn’t you just notice me?” she screamed and took a step towards him.
He grabbed her arm and held it tight. “Where is Marina?” He shook her.
“She’s nothing. The bitch will burn,” she said and for the first time he realized that she smelled of gasoline and sheer panic flooded him. His fingers tightened on her arm as he dug in.
“Where?”
She laughed, almost looking like she enjoyed the pain he was causing her. “You notice me now, don’t you?”
He tried a different tactic. “Yes, I’ve always noticed you. You’ve been here since I opened this place.” He dropped his hand and took a step back. If he didn’t, he feared he wouldn’t be able to control himself much longer.
“That’s right. I’ve been here since the beginning and now…” She pulled out a lighter and smiled at him. He took a step towards her, but she shook her head “…I’ll watch it all end.” She flipped the lighter and he watched in horror as her sleeve caught first, followed quickly by her arm and torso. She didn’t scream until he yanked the fire extinguisher from the wall and quickly doused the fire. Then she screamed, “No!” over and over again. He could smell her burnt clothes and flesh as the fire alarms screeched in the hallway.
“It has to burn!” Angie screamed as he tried to get her to hold still. Everywhere that he touched her, her clothes were charred. The fire hadn’t burned that long, but it had gone long enough to cause some major damage to her hands and arms. She fell back against the wall and huddled up in a ball, gripping them in front of her.
Just then, his cell phone rang and he yanked it out of his back pocket.
“Mr. Walker, this is the 911 dispatcher. We show that a fire alarm was triggered at your place on…”
“Yes, the fire is out, but we need an ambulance and the police here quickly,” he broke in.
“I’ll dispatch them right away. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No, just get someone here now.” He hung up and looked down at Angie. “Where is Marina?”
Angie was crying hysterically now. Her dark eye makeup had melted around her eyes, causing her to look pale and ghostlike.
“She’ll still burn. Just wait and see.” She started laughing. When the police arrived less than five minutes later, she was still laughing.
As the ambulance workers were wheeling her out under guard from a female officer, he stood in the charred hallway and tried to think of where Angie would have taken Marina.
“Mr. Walker?”
“Yes?” He turned to a young officer who was standing near him.
“We’ll send someone over to her place and search it but, chances are, Miss Jenkins won’t be there.”
“I know.”
“Is there somewhere you can think that Miss Boyer would have taken her?”
“No.” He started pacing and walked back into his office as he rubbed his hands over his face. When he turned back towards the young officer, the man was looking at him funny.
“Sir, what’s that all over your face?” He pointed towards Trent.
“What?” Trent walked over to the small mirror hanging by the door. There was dark grease all over his face. When he looked down at his hands, he realized that they were covered in the thick stuff. “I must have gotten it on me when I grabbed Angie,” he said. Then he gasped. “I know where Marina is. Follow me.” He rushed out of the room and ran towards the back stairway. He prayed that he was right.
Marina closed her eyes and hoped that she would be allowed to see Tommy and Trent one last time. The woman had left some time ago with a promise that it would all be over soon. She had trailed the gasoline behind her when she’d left and Marina sat there waiting for the glow under the doorway. But so far, it was still pitch dark.
Then she saw it. A thin beam of light under the doorway and her mind screamed, No!
Images of Tommy and Trent popped into her head. She had so much more she wanted to do with them. So much more she wanted to say to them.
She waited for the heat, for the sounds that would come with the fire. She knew there was enough gas around and on her that it would most likely be a fast whoosh. But nothing happened. Instead, she started to hear other noises, people talking, moving things around. Could that woman have come back? She held her breath and listened, and then she heard the sweetest voice ever.
“She has to be here somewhere,” Trent said from behind the door.
She started screaming again. This time, maybe, he would hear her. She moved her shoulders and legs, making the chair wiggle on the cold cement floor.
“Here,” someone else said. “I heard something.”
Marina banged the chair again and started crying when the door flew open under the weight of Trent’s shoulders. Seeing him stand in the doorway was one of the best sights she had ever seen.
He rushed towards her, pulled the rag from her mouth, and kissed her quickly.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he said, pulling out a pocketknife from his jacket. He cut the rags that held her to the chair as a young cop walked over and helped remove the ones on her legs.
When she was freed, she jumped into his arms and held on as tight as she could.
Epilogue
A week later, Marina, Tommy, and Trent sat at the new restaurant, Marina’s, surrounded by some of Trent’s close family and friends to celebrate their engagement.
He looked over and smiled when he saw a tear escape his mother’s eyes. She had fallen in love with Tommy and there wasn’t a time in the last week that he hadn’t seen the two of them together.
His mother had given up her suite at the Ritz and moved into his guest room after she’d heard what had happened to Marina.
“That poor girl. She’ll need someone close while you focus on your big opening.”
For his part, he’d taken as much time away from the opening as he could. He was confident that he’d hired the best staff and knew they were very capable of handling most of it themselves.
He wanted to be close to Marina as much as he could.
When he’d proposed at the hospital, after hearing that she’d been given a clean bill of health, she’d quickly said “yes” and cried tears of joy.
Tommy had arrived shortly after and was instantly worried upon seeing their tears.
“No, honey, we’re happy.” Marina had pulled him into her lap on the bed. “We’re going to finally be a family. See.” She held up her hand and showed Tommy the ring Trent had placed on her finger. Tommy had jumped up and down and hugged them both.
Even his friends had stopped by his place after they’d heard what had happened. Eve and Carter had brought Hope, their three-week-old daughter, who had thick dark hair like her mother. Mitch and Sandi had their one-year-old boy, Johnny, who was a spitting image of his mother with his dark skin, hair, and eyes.
His friends stayed around until just before nightfall. He could tell that having the kids around helped keep Marina’s mind off of the horrors she had been through earlier that day.
Tommy seemed to love holding the little baby and took his job of making sure her pacifier didn’t fall out of her little mouth very seriously. After everyone had left, Tommy climbed into Marina’s lap and, in a tired voice, asked if he could have a little sister soon. Trent had smiled at Marina and told the sleepy boy that he’d get right on
it.
A glass chimed, bringing his attention back to the engagement party.
“I’d like to propose a toast.” Mitch stood up and held up his glass. Tommy was sitting in Trent’s lap, almost asleep. His little head had drooped several times in the last few minutes. Now, however, he sat up and looked across the room with big eyes.
Marina looked around the room full of people she hardly knew and some she knew very well. Julie and the boys were there, along with Javan, who apparently had become very close to the family. Marina smiled when she saw how cute everyone looked together. The boys had taken to Javan quickly and she hoped that her friend had finally find the man of her dreams.
“To Trent and Marina starting their new life.” Mitch said, smiling at them.
“What about me?” Tommy asked, earning him a few laughs.
“Yes, can’t forget you. To Trent, Marina, and Tommy starting their new life.”
“Here, here.” Everyone cheered and then drank.
Other titles by Jill Sanders
The Pride Series
Finding Pride – Pride Series #1
Discovering Pride – Pride Series #2
Returning Pride – Pride Series #3
Lasting Pride – Pride Series #4
Serving Pride – Prequel to Pride Series #5
Red Hot Christmas – A Pride Christmas #6
My Sweet Valentine – Pride Series #7
The Secret Series
Secret Seduction – Secret Series #1
Secret Pleasure – Secret Series #2
Secret Guardian – Secret Series #3
Secret Passions – Secret Series #4
Secret Identity – Secret Series #5
Secret Sauce – Secret Series #6
The West Series
Loving Lauren – West Series #1
Taming Alex – West Series #2
Holding Haley – West Series #3
Missy's Moment – West Series #4
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Follow Jill Sanders online at:
Web: www.jillmsanders.com
Twitter: jillmsanders
Facebook: jillmsanders
ISBN: 978-1500594480
Copyright © 2013 Jill Sanders
Editor: Erica Ellis – www.ericaellisfreelance.com
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
About the Author
Jill Sanders is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Pride Series, Secret Series, and West Series romance novels. Having sold over 150,000 books within 6 months of her first release, she continues to lure new readers with her sweet and sexy stories. Her books are available in every English speaking country and are now being translated to six different languages, and recorded for audiobook.
Born as an identical twin to a large family, she was raised in the Pacific Northwest, later relocating to Colorado for college and a successful IT career before discovering her talent as a writer. She now makes her home in charming rural Texas where she enjoys hiking, swimming, wine tasting, and, of course, writing.